The Second Coming: Insights from Matthew 24

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Man, I like that Roland too. That's Connor O'Brien's voice. Yes. And by the way, we put names to our sound guy and a video guy. That's right. They put names to the desire puts everything together. And now Connor, such nice job. It's such a friendly voice. Yes, you're listening to the Bible guys. Yes. And by the way, if you attend our church, which is Heritage Church, then he's the guy on stage with a guitar who often does voiceovers for our videos. That's right. He's very good. Hey, so today we're gonna first of all, welcome everybody who we are the Bible Guys. My name is Chris, and then my companion is Jeff. Faithful companion, Your faithful companion. That's so funny. No, isn't that, Robin. Isn't that how they and his faithful companion? Robin? Oh No, no, No, it's faith lone ranger and his faithful companion. Yeah, that's right, that's true. Yeah, No, it's it's the dynamic duo. I think is the coin phrase for that. That's right. Yeah, so for his young Ward. Isn't that how they the Batman they'd call him, they'd call Robin Batman's young Ward. Really, it was like his adopted son, right kind of thing. Was his name? What is his name, Grace Ward? Well, I don't I don't know what his name is, but Ward meaning he was he was, he was under, he was under. I don't know Robin's real name. I think he's under his care something, Dick Grayson. This is riveting stuff. I'll just take you all right. So hey, we're gonna move on to a segment that Desiree put together, Okay, called how well do you know them? Let's see how well Jefferly knows you? Chris ask him three off the wall questions and see if her questions off the wall. But all right, here we go. Ready, here's the first one. So I just thought of this, like literally a minute before we started. How many cities have I lived in? Total? But I'm gonna get but I'm gonna give you a hint. Yeah, you already know this answer, whether you've ever thought about it or not. So there's nothing okay, there's nothing secret. Nope, Okay, go to name them Youngstown. Youngstown where I grew up, Springfield, Springfield, Missouri. I went to college there, Atlanta, just outside of Atlanta. I'll give you that one because it's Stockbridge. But it's okay, you never know that. Uh a different town here in Michigan. Nope, you moved straight to Troy. Yep. Even though you worked in a little church in here in Michigan, didn't you work in another church? No, kids, moved straight to Kensy's Okay, So Troy, that's Troy, and that's it. That's four. That's it. Four. Well I thought you worked in another church. So you've only worked in two churches your whole life. Uh? No, three churches? Three churches. No. Well, actually in Stockbridge and when I was Atlanta, i worked in two churches, lived in the same house. And then here I was, I'd in the same house as two churches. Yeah, okay, I've literally done the same thing. Wow, that's cool. That crazy. Yeah, But the good news is I've only had two houses as like like as a married person, I've been married thirty two years. So your basement's packed Full's what you're saying. I don't even have a basement. I don't have a base. I don't have a base. That's the first question. Okay, here's the second one, which, by the way, I was off the wall. I loath the fact that I don't have a basement. Number two, you should ask me that do I have a basement? I should have Okay, what is my favorite genre of music? Uh? I have so many statements to make on that your favorite genre? H Well, I think Taylor Swift is your favorite singer, so it's got to be some kind of a pop I didn't say she was my favorite. I just said I liked her. I just I liked her. Yeah, so I would say I want to say show tunes. That's what I wanted to say. Yes, pop, wow, you're going for the swifty Yeah, either yeah popp or country pop. It's country the country it's country. Yeah yeah. I lived in Atlanta for ten years and they grew on me. Yeah yeah. Yeah. So that's it. And then here's the last question. Okay, what is the number You don't have to name the actual countries, ok but what is the number of the as many international missions trips that I've taken in total international missions trips that you've taken? Yeah, these are either like visions trips as leadership or service trips. I would think it's twenty seven really close twenty four oh wow yeah yeah. So the breakdown is Cuba, Haiti, Kenya, and Costa Rica. I went all of them four times. Wow, and then once each I went to India, Brazil, South Sudan, South Africa, Tanzania, Egypt, Israel, and the Dominican Republic. Wow. Wow, that's it. That's great. Well, we're getting ready to go back to Dominican Republic. We are, yeah, yeah, just in a couple of weeks. Yeah, okay, there would be a good one. There you go. Awesome, Then that'll be twenty five. Yes, just round it off. Just make sure you asked me that question again next time. There it is. Hey, So if you care about me at all, all the amazing things, it's just we're plumbing the depths. You know, more about the person of the mystery. That is Chris Starba. That's it. The music, it's very fulfilling. I can imagine it would be for you. So today we are in Mathew really chapter twenty four. I'm just moving on just so today we're going to be in Matthew chapter twenty four. Yep, and do you remember those of who've been listening over the last week or so. We started off and we're reading about all these comments that Jesus makes about his return and being watchful, right, and so it winds up being three very long passages in Matthew chapter twenty four, Mark chapter thirteen, and Luke chapter twenty one. So what we decided to do is go halfway on each of those three passages, and now we're coming back and we're picking back up in Matthew twenty four, and we'll get the second half today of that one, and then we'll go to Luke second half of that one, and then yeah, or Mark and then Luke. So technically, just to say it another way, that means will have done six podcasts on three chapters, three chapters which are the same parallel story one one big topic, one big topic. That's right, yeah, yeah, So it's just so many verses. This one chapter has fifty one verses in it. In Matthew chapter twenty four, zins Yeah, So we're not gonna read all fifty one because we've already read twenty five of them. But you pick up right there Matthew chapter twenty four, Verse twenty six says. So if someone tells you, look, the Messiah is out in the desert, don't bother to go and look, or look he's hiding here. Don't believe it. For as the lightning flashes in the east and shines to the west, so it will be when the Sun of Man comes. Just as the gathering of vulture shows there's a carcass nearby. So these signs indicate that the end is near. Immediately after the anguish of those days, the sun will be dark and the moon will give no light. The stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then at last, the sign that the Sun of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet. They will gather his chosen ones from all over the world, from the farthest ends of the Earth and heaven. Now learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things, you can know his return is very near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, This generation will not pass from the scene until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear. However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Sun himself. Only the Father knows. When the Sun of Man returns, It'll be like it was in Noah's day. In those days after the flood, or before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up until the time Noah entered his boat. People didn't realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. And that is the way it'll be when the Sun of Man comes. Two men will be working together in the field, and one will be taken the other left. Two women will be grinding flour at the mill. One will be taken the other left. So you too must keep watch, for you don't know what day your Lord is coming. Understand this, if a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he'll keep watch and not permit his house to be broken into. You also must be ready all the time, for the son of man will come when least expected. A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. I tell you the truth. The master will put that servant in charge of the all he owns. But what if the servant is evil and thinks my master won't be back for a while, and he begins beating the other servants and partying and getting drunk. The Master will turn unannounced and unexpected, and he'll cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So Jesus saying, hey, he's coming back at any minute, he is. And that last word picture is a heck of a word picture. Yeah, absolutely hotly Christmas. Yeah, yeah, so there's a lot in there. Yeah, Well I read Jesus is coming back. At any minute. You don't know when. And that's why I live by the motto heat dessert first. Jesus is coming back at any minute, and so I say that all the time. He desert first, and people who've gone out to eat with me, you know that it's true. A lot of times I'll eat dessert first because the last thing I want to do is if Jesus comes back. I'm sitting there with a mouth full of broccoli and I knew dessert was coming. We're like, are you serious, right, so eat dessert first. Jesus come back at any minute. Let's be ready. That's really funny. Yeah. So when he says this generation, I tell you the truth, this generation, Oh, we're gonna get ready to it that thanks, Chris. Oh well yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no, it's just it's the hardest thing. I whole page. I'm just making fun of the fact you chose the hardest thing to talk about. There's an asterisk there. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, and and and the asterisk. I was just going to point out that the Life Application Study Bible has a note that says it translates into this age or this nation. Right, So so sometimes I think What happens is when we when we take a word translated into English and we take it so literally without doing the work of the original Greek, we can say, oh, that must mean you know, the people listening to it in the in the first century, by the time their generation would die off. Yeah, I wouldn't think that that would be the hardest thing on here. No, no, it's just that's the most complex thing in this everything else you can read pretty much surface and that, right, So that I was just making fun that that's the first thing we went to. You know, we limpd into it with the dessert comment. You're trying to redeem the conversation here. No, no, no, I hear. Well. You know we've always we've said this in the past. You know, last time we talked about, uh, the book Revelation has been good goodness, gracious what months and months and months ago right on this podcast. So I sort of told a story about you know, those billboards where I've driven by and and and people have actually in the past, I've seen it where it was pretty popular, where there was a group of people who rented out which is quite expensive, spaces on billboards and saying here's our prediction this is when the second come is coming is gone, and they would predict a date right, and then and then I remember, you know, the date would come and go, and then I remember what's absolutely I mean, I want to say hilarious, but but like it's kind of sad too. Somebody else rented the billboard and wrote, well that was awkward right after that, and it was so it was so like funny, but at the same time, it's like it's like it sort of like makes us all look bad. Right, the Christians of the of the world that are interpreted as sometimes fanatics. Well, the way that you know that nobody knows is because even Jesus doesn't, right. He literally says in verse thirty six, he says, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself, right, only the Father knows. And then he said, actually, he will come when you when it's least expected. Yeah, So it's not going to be the date on the billboard, right, which means which means when somebody says I think he's going to come here, in my mind, I go, okay, that probably means that date is not when he's going to come. Yeah, right, because I take Jesus pretty literal, right, and when he says it's going to come when it's least expected, I would guess that everybody who studies and predicts. Hey, I get a sort of a sad story, but I think it's worth telling. Tell it. Everybody loves sad stories. Well, my friend just passed away. And he was at one time extremely good friend of mine when I lived in Atlanta. We just talked about me living in Stockbridge, Georgia. When I lived there, I was a pastor of high school students, and one of my best friends in the world was this guy named Chris and and he was like a helper in my in my youth group, you know. Anyway, super great friend. And then we lost touch for years and years after I moved to Michigan. Well, then we got reconnected and he was this huge The only way I can describe it, I guess, is like a huge revelation type person. Right, Whereas like every conversation, yeah, yeah, every conversation, we couldn't get off the phone or get off text without talking about the second coming, Okay, and so anyway, and then what happens is this is the sad part. This is extremely sad like, is what he says, Hey, Chris, I've developed a disease. And he's pretty much drank himself to death. Okay, so what is that grossest deliver? Yeah, that's exactly right. And so he's like, he's like, but because I'm not going to stop drinking beer. And I was like, why, I just love it too much. And I was like, but the doctor said that if you stopped, there's a chance perhaps that you would add years and years to your life. And here's what he said. He said, doesn't matter because I already know I'm not going to live very long anyway, none of us are, because Jesus is coming back. And he also said, and I've got a bunch of money. He's like, and I really don't care about saving it because I don't care about passing it on because Jesus is coming back. This man was so absolutely convinced, which is not a bad thing, sure to convince that Jesus coming back, right, But he was cashing all his chips, putting it in this basket because he decided to not take care of himself and not plan financially for the future. And so then eventually his wife texted me and said Hayes, why don't you know, you know, Chris passed away. I was so sad and that conversation still rings in my ears. And so when I read a passage like this, how could you not think about your friend? Oh? Right, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, So he had it right in that we should be living our life like Jesus is going to come back at any minute. Yes, but Jesus intent of letting us know he's coming back at any minute is not that we would drink more beer and blow all our money, right, that's that's not that. I'm not trying to make fun. What I'm saying trying right, So his start preparing, stop stop witnessing stuff right right. Instead, he's telling us because he said it's coming, and it's coming you you won't even know. It's like a thief in the night, you know. He's he talks about that. He talks about the boss that comes home early. And I used to work for it at the time. One of the richest men in Michigan back right before Bondy and I got married, worked on as a state and it's about five hundred acres. Told me he lived there, was it? What place did he visited? Well? So yeah, he lived there part time, so he's probably there half the year. He lived on that estate and great, big, giant, huge home and we had probably a ten acre formal gardens and it was just it was magnificent, right, So we did all the work on that. So we had like three or four college guys that were just working, you know, summer workers. But he had several year round a adult employees, some people that managed the ranch. He owned a big cattle ranch next door, some that just managed his property there. And my boss was one of those guys. He made good money, had a company pickup truck, and he was that big cowboy kind of guy. He just live in that cool life. The home he lived in was on that estate, all that stuff. Just living around this. He had access to the pool. Whenever the big dog wasn't in town, he just free reign of the whole complex. But he was a total jerk and he never did anything unless the boss, the owner was in the area. And so it had come up. I didn't throw him under the bus, but one of the other employees had mentioned to the owner, Hey, you know, if you're not around, he doesn't do anything. He just he goes into town. He just spends money, he sleeps. And so one day the owner came into town unexpected and rolled in, Hey where's Bill? And we were like, well, he's I hear right now. And the owner got upset, said you tell me where's that. I know you guys are covering for him, and so we said well. And Bill had an entire little apartment up in the hayloff in one of the barns that he had built himself just to be able to take naps. And he was in there watching TV, not working, and the boss fired him on the spot. He lost the best job he ever had in his life. Wow, because the rich man showed up and said, hey, you're being unfaithful. So he's squandering he's spent so much money. It's a big investigation about all the waste. So when I read that, that's what I think about, is there's going to be a day when Jesus shows up or when the King shows up and so, hey, what have you been doing for me? Have you been getting your work done? Have you been doing what I told you to do? So he doesn't tell us all these things so that we like, you know, talking about your friends, so that we drink more and spend more, and just blow off all the important things of life. Right Instead, what he's trying to do is he's trying to focus our mission. Hey, there's work to be done. Yeah. The opposite is probably you need you to stay focused and be ready because there's lots of people who don't yet know that I'm coming back. There's so many people who don't know that they're about ready to stand in judgment. You need to go tell them all. And then you just have to be working like it's tomorrow. Work like it's tomorrow. Work with that kind of urgency to bring lost people to faith in Christ, to lay up treasures in heaven. As Jesus said, to make a difference with your life. You have to work like it like I'm coming back tomorrow. Because when I do show up, I'm gonna he says, he's gonna, then he's gonna hold us accountable. There'll be judgment. In verse number twenty nine, when it says immediately after the anguish of those days, the sun will be dark and the moon will give no light, the stars are far from the sky, and the powers of heaven will be shaken, he's actually quoting there Isaiah thirteen to ten, and then it says thirty four thirty four to four, and then it says see Joel, chapter two, verse number ten. So so you know, here are these You know, Jesus is now connecting the Old Testament right with what you know is going to happen with himself. And by the way, I love the imagery of saying the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory because you know, think about this, Jesus is about to surrender his life, right, He's about to give his life to you know, to be handed over. Those guys who are listening don't necessarily know that it's going to be literal and it's going to come any second, right, right, But you know they're about to see Jesus be overpowered supposedly, right. But Jesus isn't you know, he let them overpower him. He says, you know, I'm nobody's taking my life from me. He's about to say, I give it willingly, right. But you know, think about the imagery that they're that they're going to see, you know, just the picturing the final days of Jesus, and so this imagery of him talking about him coming back one day is just glorious in this moment. Oh yeah, that's really cool. That reminds me of the lyrics to that old Southern gospel song when Jesus steps out on the clouds. Yeah, we hear that song. Huh oh no, it's a great song. Say it for us. I'm not going to sing it. Come on, Joe, I'm not going to sing it. So I can, but I'm not going to. So there is a phrase the very first sentence that we read here, verse twenty six. So if someone tells you, look, the Messiah's out in the desert, don't bother to go and look. On a semi regular basis, a couple times a year, somebody will give me their book that they've written about when Jesus is coming back really right. Oh yeah, it happens to me either a handwritten I've had multiple handwritten books, where so this is the manuscript that they wrote and it's about they're pretty sure they have a good idea of when Jesus is coming back. And then I would say probably once every year every other year, I get somebody who gives me a book that they actually had printed right where they're really really confident that they know when Jesus is going to return, and Jesus says, here, someone tells you, look, the Missia's out. Don't even bother and go look, right, So, hey, would you read this? And I'm like, probably not right? Right? Right? So if you want to give me a book about when Jesus is going to return, because you're pretty sure you know it. He wrote that book, don't give it to me. Give it to Chris. He'll read it. But I will be happy to take it and pass it on to my other friends like Chris, you know who. But I'm joking on that. I've read many many times people would write a thing and then I'd come back and go, hey, have you thought of this? Have you thought of that? Right? And we just can't know. I just literally today, before I came into the studio, I had a meeting with a person who this is what they wanted to talk about, specifically, trying to figure out my theology, the way I view Jesus coming back and all those things, the importance of it, and it's a big deal we should take Jesus took a long time to talk about this, Oh godess, And he continues on right, he keeps going with this topic. Yeah, before he left, one of the really big things he wanted his disciples to know is it's all going to come to an end, right, and I want you to know what's going to be like. And he didn't tell you to scare you. He told you so that you'd be ready. And that's really the intent behind all of this. And just be ready and we'll keep talking about this. This same topic goes on for the next couple of days. Yep. Okay, well that's a good place to end. It's about our time, so we will see you, hopefully tomorrow on the bubble. Guys,